FTL's situations lack some variety and the randomness of the game as a whole can be frustrating, but it largely makes up for these flaws through its intense combat and intuitive and deep micromanagement options.

Unlocking the rest of the ship roster should be easier, since trying different ships is a core pillar of FTL's replayability. The ill-conceived boss fight breaks the established rules to deliver a frustratingly unfair challenge, but the meat of the gameplay itself is an excellent take on one of sci-fi fandom's oldest and most beloved themes. You have to respect that accomplishment when it comes from anyone, much less a two-man studio Kickstarted into a $10 indie game.

Like Spelunky before it, survival often depends on what you're carrying, and when you happen across life-prolonging shops and lucky weapon drops. But FTL is a less masterful game than Derek Yu's cave diver, throwing more chance into the mix.

Faster Than light is a game that want to aim to quantity more than quality. The number of events the title offers is fantastic, like the various situations we have to face: for example, the battle against aliens or encounter new members to join our team.

With all that in mind, FTL remains a great game – not perfect, not legendary, but a great indie title that offers up something pretty unique as opposed to a cheaper version of a game that mainstream devs already do and do better.

More than any other game I've played, more than the incredibly complex X series, more than the fanboy-titillating Star Trek: Bridge Commander, FTL made me feel like I was in command of a starship. Or, rather, a series of constantly exploding starships. If that's a something you'd be into, and I certainly don't want to know you if it isn't, then do yourself a favor and grab FTL.

If you love the old science fiction movies, RPG roguelike genre and spaceship, FTL could be the game that you were waiting for a entire life. Otherwise, if you are looking for a good sci-fi story or a "fleet rts", you could be disappointed.

FTL: Faster Than Light is basically an incredibly simplistic spaceship simulation. The choices you make during the game, make for a complex and challenging experience though. Graphically it might look fun and cartoony, but it's an incredibly hard and unforgiving game in which a small mistake can lead to a game over screen. Despite the high difficulty it's a game that you'll restart constantly, because you'll want to improve on yourself and because it'll stay fun.

Gaming can be hit or miss when it comes to getting what you pay for. Sometimes, though, a game comes along that not only provides a good value proposition, but well exceeds what's expected. As one of the first of the crowd-sourced games to come out of Kickstarter since Double Fine ran the table with donations for Double Fine Adventure, FTL begins to show that as a viable way to finance games. While having some small issues, like no compatibility with Steam's Cloud service, I have no problem recommending this.

Faster Than Light is kid's dream becoming a video game. On the deck of a piece of metal, at the helm of its crew, you will start by sticking out your chest like a 10 years old boy, shooting on sight. Then the harsh truth of the reality of a boundless space will come to bite you in the ass, your decisions will cost lives, and you will end up being the chief of your own demise. But his is why you will love offering, once more, your innocence to FTL.

You want to explore space, push your crew to the limit and improve your vessel. From sector to sector you find new challenges, although none is bigger than the save system. You die, you have to start over.

FTL is a simple looking space adventure with an amazing amount of depth. It has a high difficulty and an enormous amount of strategic possibilities. And despite the fact that it's somewhat monotonous at times, FTL is an unique and refreshing space game where danger lurks behind every light jump.

The ten bucks it costs to get into Faster Than Light won't be money well spent for every gamer out there, but if you are looking for a challenging roguelike strategy game with some intriguing ship management and light RPG systems built into it, then you owe it to yourself to check out this game.

FTL offers almost everything one can ask of a rogue-like indie game.
It's deep, it's varied, it's intense and quite frankly great fun. It's
a must for everyone who wants a challenge and highly rewarding
gameplay.

A well-made strategic indie game that lets you dawdle the hours away by building your own vessel for the sole purpose of watching it being destroyed. That's how this game is. However, you will be forced to begin again and again because of the game's pleasantness and adrenaline burst. The game is also being offered for a laughable price, so all of you with a dream to have your own Enterprise, Serenity or Millenium Falcon should definitely purchase this one.

It ropes you in as a cute and simple game, only to show its true identity after just a couple of rounds. Only if you play clever and smartly plan your journey, you'll be able to ever finish FTL: Faster Than Light – only to turn around on a dime and start all over again.

Captaining a spaceship is a dream that many gamers have had for years, and FTL pulls it off near perfectly. If the difficulty, randomness, and repetition of rougelikes doesn't scare you away, FTL will give you an experience you can't find anywhere else.

FTL: Faster Than Light proves, that indie games funded through Kickstarter can gather gamers and do it with style. Many different playthroughs, no save option and perma-death are the game's strongest points, but you need to remember, that FTL couldn't exist without them - the campaign can be beaten in 2-3 hours. This game bases its gameplay on successes and failures alike and does so well, that I will be glad to play FTL for dozens of hours more.

Kickstarter has accomplished its mission in this one, giving the opportunity to an original, non-mainstream title to go public and meet its well-deserved success. Especially for sci-fi fans, it’s a no-brainer; buy this game at once and live the life of a courageous pilot that only has one mission: survival. [November 2012]

I want to like this game, I really, really do. But it's so frustrating that I'm not willing to take any more time to play it.

Yes, it's aI want to like this game, I really, really do. But it's so frustrating that I'm not willing to take any more time to play it.

Yes, it's a rogue like- and yes, rogue likes- are heavily dependent on randomness but FTL takes it to the extreme. I lost and lost and lost (and losing sees a restart from scratch - only the hardcore need apply); it's not even that there isn't a component of skill. One does need to be skilled: managing your crew, sub-systems and power takes a lot of effort whilst also pinpointing attacks on the enemy.

But chance and the increasing difficulty curve as you venture further across the universe outweigh the skill component solidly.

Rather save money, get a dice, roll it till a six; then declare yourself a winner. It'll be far less aggravating all 'round.…Full Review »

This is an indie game, made by two fellas like you and me, and because of that, I'll try to be as constructive as possible in this review. MyThis is an indie game, made by two fellas like you and me, and because of that, I'll try to be as constructive as possible in this review. My rating is 2, and it's OBVIOUS that this game would deserve more. So, why do I give it only two? Well, there are a couple of reasons. A bit more actually. As someone else pointed out, this game is interesting and provides a strong "sci-fi experience". This is for the bright side. I've backed this game on Kickstarter, and I've had the chance to play it before its release. According to steam, more than 18 hours. To be honest, I must have spent the first 15 hours almost in a row, right after downloading it. The rest corresponds to a few tries I gave it from this moment until now; to see if the flaws were corrected yet. In fact, once a wave of enthusiasm has passed, the game becomes really boring : its main problem is re-playability. The experience which feels great at start becomes repetitive really rapidly. Each play-through is really not different. And the game is quite difficult, you find yourself dying all the time (this is relative to the genre, I think), which doesn't help at all about that. Indeed, the difficulty lacks a normal mode : the easy mode is damn easy, and the so called "normal" mode is kinda hard. The second complaint I have is : things are WAY too random. The fact that you flee before an entire fleet means that you don't have the leisure to explore your surroundings. As a consequence, you either are lucky enough to find some weapons, a new crew member or some good stuff; or you have bad luck and your only outcome is usually to start a new game. I could throw dice instead, I would have pretty much the same feeling. And because of the "balance" of the game, you often don't have the choice but to upgrade your shields ASAP, and pray to find good weapons soon enough. So the "freedom" upon upgrade choices isn't really there, at least if you want to survive. Your skills are very rarely involved, it's only gambling. To such extent, that after a hundred of games or so, the only new things you have are a bunch of unlocked ships which don't modify game experience that much. Same goes for the music : it's really entertaining at first, pleasing and so. And after some time, you find yourself muting it, and listening to Internet radio or so. So, even if this game is made from good ideas and obviously a lot of work, it lacks a lot of polish to reach the intended replayability. I was hoping something really different and way more satisfying. I really hope I will have to rewrite this review because the developers corrected these mistakes. Until then, that's not worth buying, really.…Full Review »

I bought FTL on a whim when I saw that it involved space ship command with a tactical bent. My expectations were low - but when I got into itI bought FTL on a whim when I saw that it involved space ship command with a tactical bent. My expectations were low - but when I got into it I was surprised to find myself really engaged and enjoying the experience. The visuals aren't that flash but the gameplay fires the imagination such that the visuals remain functional and incidental to the core experience. Different scenarios are presented to you as you warp into each new sector and you are required to make choices that influence where the game goes; a lot of these choices result in combat but it's refreshing to see that some do not. A lot of sci-fi games focus too much on combat but the whole star trek experience is just as much about managing crew and making decisions as it is firing the phasers. FTL is perhaps leaning toward too much combat, but it does make significant efforts to give you other things to do as well - and to good effect. The soundtrack is delightful and the sense that you are in command is palpable. On my last game it was me and Jean Luc (you can name crew members) and we made it alone to stage 4 (of 5) and had some amazing scraps and adventures along the way. We started we 3 crew members (you can recruit more along the way) but Beverly died after we were boarded and the oxygen levels in sick bay dropped to the point where she suffocated. We were really cut up about that but pressed on. It's a great little game - could perhaps have benefited from just a little more depth but as is it's heaps of fun and for the price... you can't lose. Highly recommended.…Full Review »